@article{Asdaq_2019, title={Prescribing Pattern of Granulocyte Colony-stimulating Factor at Tertiary Care Hospital in Riyadh: An Observational Study}, volume={13}, url={https://www.asiapharmaceutics.info/index.php/ajp/article/view/3401}, DOI={10.22377/ajp.v13i04.3401}, abstractNote={<p>Background and Aim: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is one of the lethal side effects that necessity hospitalization<br />with fever and life-threatening infections in patients receiving chemotherapy. Several regulatory guidelines<br />recommend the prophylactic use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to overcome this situation.<br />However, rational use of G-CSF is required to avoid economic burden and undesired side effects such as<br />thrombocytopenia. Hence, the current study was designed to evaluate the pattern of G-CSF utilization in our<br />hospital and subsequently assess the appropriateness of its prescription with an estimation on cost factor.<br />Materials and Methods: This is a prospective observational study conducted between December 2017 and<br />February 2018 in the chemotherapy day unit of Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,<br />on patients diagnosed with any type of cancer and receiving chemotherapy with G-CSF. The appropriate use<br />of G-CSFs for FN prophylaxis was evaluated based on the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)<br />guidelines and published data. The demographic, clinical data and G-CSF prescribing data were collected by<br />the clinical pharmacist from patient’s files and the electronic records. The data were analyzed by appropriate<br />statistical tests using SPSS-IBM 23. Results: Of 118 patients who fulfill our inclusion criteria, 26% and 15%<br />of them were breast cancer and colorectal cancer patients, respectively. Based on the ASCO guidelines and<br />published literature, only 42.4% of them were considered appropriate for G-CSF prescription, while 57.6%<br />of them received G-CSF inappropriately. The major reasons for inappropriate prescription were unfamiliarity<br />with chemotherapy regimens or physicians’ anticipated risk of neutropenia in patients receiving chemotherapy.<br />Due to inappropriate prescription, around 61.70% of the cost of G-CSF was wasted. Conclusion: Inadequate<br />knowledge of the chemotherapy risk of FN was documented as major reason for inappropriate prescription<br />of G-CSF. Health-care professionals including clinical pharmacists should play an active to improve G-CSF<br />prescribing pattern. In addition, availability of comprehensive hospital guidelines may rationalize the therapeutic<br />approach in G-CSF prescription.</p>}, number={04}, journal={Asian Journal of Pharmaceutics (AJP)}, author={Asdaq, Syed Mohammed Basheeruddin}, year={2019}, month={Nov.} }